Iranian Oil Minister Sends Letter to OPEC; UAE Replies
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh called on the UAE to include a separate agenda item for the June OPEC meeting entitled “OPEC Ministerial Conference support to the Member Countries that are under illegal, unilateral and extraterritorial sanctions”.
Zangeneh’s letter was addressed to the United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei, who holds OPEC presidency in 2018.
The Iranian oil minister also said that if the latest US sanctions threat was resolved “Iran reserves the right to return to its oil market share in the shortest possible time and resumes its normal production-level and will not accept any limitations in this regard,” Shana news agency reported.
OPEC should support Iran in accordance with Article 2 of the OPEC Statute, which emphasizes “safeguarding the interests of member countries individually and collectively,” he said.
In a separate letter, Mazrouei replied that there were two options available to discuss this issue.
The first is for the OPEC governors to review the request and include it for discussion in OPEC’s meeting later this year, which could be held in November.
The second option is to include it in the June meeting under “any other business” as a “Request from the Islamic Republic of Iran”, Mazrouei said, suggesting it will not be on the main agenda for the ministers, according to Reuters.
OPEC governors meet next in October.
Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement, which was reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany.
Trump also said he would reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.
